Salesforce Inc. today is extending the features of its Service Cloud to better support field service workers like technicians, skilled tradespeople and service and repair technicians.

The artificial intelligence-powered features enable companies to implement customer self-booking capability through the channels of their choice, better predict job durations, ensure that field workers have the equipment and information they need and reserve work capacity in advance.

Citing recent research by Stryder Corp.’s Handshake recruiting service that found that the number of young people seeking work in skilled trades dropped by nearly half between 2020 and 2022, Salesforce said the pressure is on companies with field operations to become more efficient and to equip their people with technology that will attract new workers.

“A lot of innovation has gone into AI for knowledge workers but it’s also really valuable for the front line,” said Taksina Eammano, executive vice president and general manager of field service at Salesforce. “Our opportunity is to tell that story, to not leave our front-line workers behind because we need to attract and retain that talent.”

Self-service booking

Salesforce’s existing Appointment Assistant, which tracks customers’ service experiences, now has self-service capabilities that work across multiple Salesforce products as well as short messaging service and chat. Customers can book and reschedule appointments, as well as see the status of the requests in real time.

Proactive service with Salesforce’s Data Cloud provides a unified real-time view of customers and their assets — including purchase details, service history and the status of connected devices. Customers can use Salesforce’s Einstein artificial intelligence technology to automatically schedule service appointments and job duration as well as to ensure the availability of parts, tools and people.

New features in the existing advanced scheduling service add capacity management so the companies can reserve resources for work to be done in the future.

For field service people, knowledge search capabilities have been extended beyond the customer’s own information assets to include external resources delivered through a generative AI interface. The aim is to reduce the time workers spend searching for answers so they can focus on solving problems.

“If I have knowledge that’s with Samsung or GE instead of in my company I can now incorporate that into my knowledge base,” Eammano said.

Job quotes and documents can now be created on mobile devices and Salesforce Pay Now provides payment capabilities within the mobile app.

“When we free up time so people are not doing administrative tasks but are empowered to generate revenue in the field that’s empowering,” Eammano said. “The tools are much more modern and I think that will help attract those younger people.”

Image: Pixabay